This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/5d.2ADE/178.1 Message Board Post: About censi, white black mulatto. Darned if I know. I've been helping research for a niece, looking for OLIVER and SASSER in mostly Screven County. I think it was 1870 census there for Sasser - half were each black and white, right after the civil war. I found an Eleanor Sasser there on 1850 *about* the right age b abt 1824-6 but that one married, raised a family and died right there so cannot be the right one. I think some, or one, of Thomas Sasser's sons moved at some time to Twiggs County. The one I can't much account for was John. Haven't found a clue yet who are parents to Fern Napoleon Bonaparte Oliver b. 18-teens. I've worked over the Screven county bunch from John > John > McDaniel Oliver, some of whose sons seem to have gone to Twiggs Co. Does anyone recognize this household? 1850 U.S. Census • Georgia • Screven • District 74 Martha OLIVER 45 farmer all b GA B N? 23 farmer, Virgil G 17 doctor, Joseph H 15 (other Oliver households same pages Elijah 34, McDaniel 35, WW 29) I took my cue hunting at Screven County because Fern and Eleanor's 3rd child Clara Margaret Oliver was born 1858 Screven. Their eldest was son John - could be named for the father of either or both. Besides McDaniel's bunch, there's a George OLIVER I can't connect on the 1850 census, 2nd door down from a Henry FERN. On to mixed parentage and the 1870 census being all mixed - I sometimes find a white in a black household &c, yep. Recall that early censuses show which families have how many slaves. Niece's family oral history says Eleanor Sasser was indian. Now, history tells me that 1813-1840 Creek Wars make that somewhat equally likely than some other possibilities. And then I went in frustration to see who're the Bonapartes, since that's a possible clue. On the 1870 forward in the south they're pretty much all black or mulatto with SC roots, but didn't seem to exist before the war. And that Napoleon as a given name was not uncommon. I think there's a lot to unscramble from back 1800-1870s.